A judge has certified a class-action lawsuit against the B.C. Lottery Corporation for two men who were denied their slot machine jackpots because they had signed voluntary self-exclusion agreements.

The BCLC said Hamidreza Haghdust and Michael Lee could not claim more than $77,000 they won because of the terms of the Voluntary Self-Exclusion (VSE) program, which specifies they wouldn’t get any winnings if they played.

Lawyers for both Haghdust and Lee applied to have a class-action suit certified, arguing that their clients spent about $200,000 and $30,000, respectively, seeking to receive the jackpots they were denied and that the BCLC decision not to pay is “unconscionable and a breach of contract.”

And this week, B.C. Supreme Court Justice John Savage ruled there were sufficient grounds to certify a class-action for winners denied because they were in the self-exclusion program.

“The claims of the class members raise common issues that could usefully be resolved in the format of a class proceeding,” Savage said in his reasons, released Wednesday. “The class definition is appropriate and includes only those who have a common interest in determining whether the defendant’s withholding of Jackpot prizes was a breach of contract or an unconscionable trade act or practice.”

Lawyers for the two have said there are many more people in a similar situation as their two clients, having signed agreements under BCLC’s VSE Program, but have entered casinos and spent large amounts of cash only to be deprived of subsequent prizes. And they say that the BCLC has kept the money spent by their clients and others in the program, yet then denies them their winnings.

Winners must at BCLC casinos must produce government ID to receive payouts for transactions over $9,000, regardless of which game they play. Between April 1, 2009, and June 3, 2010, jackpots were withheld from 105 VSE participants on 113 different occasions, according to BCLC data in the lawsuit. Between June 4, 2010, and July 4, 2012, a total of 187 jackpots were withheld from VSE participants, according to the same data.

The lottery corporation’s “jackpot disentitlement” rule was properly and lawfully enacted under the Gambling Control Act, according to spokeswoman Laura Piva-Babcock.

“The jackpot disentitlement rule is intended as a deterrent for self-excluded people,” Piva-Babcock stated in an email. “External reviews of our VSE program have highlighted the need for disincentives such as these.

“BCLC does not plan to appeal the certification decision.”

Irwin M. Cohen of the B.C. Centre for Social Responsibility at the University of the Fraser Valley said the VSE program doesn’t promise to stop one’s gambling or to always keep one out of a casino: “it’s an agreement.”

He was lead author of a 2011 study of BCLC’s VSE program that found one-third of the 169 study participants tried to gamble while excluded, and as many as 70 per cent of those attempts were successful. Getting into a casino when banned is not very difficult, Cohen said.

Cohen’s study found that detection methods such as facial-recognition software — which BCLC is now testing — are unreliable, and that banned gamblers are often only caught when they try to cash in their winnings. BCLC has been using license plate recognition software to help detect self-excluded people since 2009.

“(There are) people who 10, 15, 20 times a day with disguises are trying to sneak into a casino,” Cohen said. “Do we really think, given the current state of technology and the tools that are available, the BCLC (is) going to be successful 100 per cent of the time in detecting that person?”

The only way to successfully stop all VSE participants from gambling at BCLC casinos would be to screen every patron at the door for ID Cohen said. While mandatory screening is the norm in countries like South Korea, Cohen said it is something “we probably wouldn’t tolerate in our society.”

Cohen recommends using a sliding scale for the consequences imposed on banned gamblers who are caught in a casino and removing chronic offenders from the program altogether to seek addictions treatment.

Last October a North Delta woman filed a lawsuit against the BCLC and two local casinos in the Supreme Court of Canada, claiming that due to the negligence of the BCLC and casino operators, she was able to enter casinos and gamble away $331,000, despite putting herself in the VSE program.

The voluntary program was implemented in 2009 and is generally used by problem gamblers. As of press time, BCLC did not respond to The Sun’s request for the number of VSE participants.

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